Since the arrival of her widely lauded debut EP 3:33am, Amber Mark’s voice has performed a powerful alchemy, often turning pain and heartache into extraordinary beauty. When matched with her prismatic musicality—an element shaped by her nomadic upbringing, including time spent in New York City, Miami, Berlin, India, Thailand, and Nepal—the Tennessee-born artist’s spellbinding vocals and lavish storytelling often create a sensation of rapturous surrender. In a departure from her past work’s existential soul-searching and nuanced reflection on grief, Mark’s sophomore album Pretty Idea journeys into lighter but no less layered emotional terrain: the ache and chaos and occasional euphoria of falling deep into an impossible romance. Steeped in a warm and groovedriven sound that hits every pleasure center, the result is a daring leap forward for one of modern music’s most fascinating singer/songwriters.

The follow-up to Three Dimensions Deep (a 2022 LP praised by the likes of Pitchfork, Stereogum, and NPR), Pretty Idea finds Mark joining forces with several of her frequent collaborators, including leading producers like Julian Bunetta (Teddy Swims, Gracie Abrams), John Ryan (Sabrina Carpenter, Niall Horan), and Two Fresh (Mac Miller, Samara Cyn). “Because I was so comfortable with everyone I worked with on this album, I felt really free to express myself creatively—there was none of the anxiety that’s sometimes consumed me in the past,” she says. Not only evident in her unfettered vocal work, that sense of freedom manifests in the lovely fluidity of Pretty Idea’s sonic palette—a gorgeously orchestrated fusion of R&B, indie-folk, soul, funk, dream-pop, and more. “Even though a lot of these songs are about heartbreak and the end of a long-term relationship, the record still feels really fun and joyful,” notes Mark, naming yacht-rock legends like The Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan among her touchstones for the album.

After opening on the hypnotic reverie of “ooo,” Pretty Idea drifts into the velvety guitar tones and minimalist beats of “Sweet Serotonin”: a Motown-inspired meditation on the drug-like power of desire. “That song came from having some deep conversations with friends when I was in the beginning stages of seeing someone,” explains Mark, who co-produced the track. “We were talking about how we don’t have the same capacity for excitement like we did when we were kids, and it led to me writing about that fleeting feeling of happy chemicals rushing through your brain when you meet someone new.” Next, on “By The End Of The Night,” Mark flips the script and offers up a gloriously dazzling post-breakup bop that perfectly captures the pure exhilaration in getting over your ex. From there, Pretty Idea slips into the woozy rhythms and shimmering textures of “Too Much,” a boldly confessional portrait of unrequited obsession. “It’s about dating someone with commitment issues, and how their actions didn’t line up with their words,” says Mark. And on “Doin’ Me,” Mark presents a dance-ready and unapologetic anthem of self-celebration. “I was traveling to Paris by myself to work, and because it’s such a romantic city I found myself wishing I could share it with a love interest,” she recalls. “It turned into a song about moving on from that feeling, and figuring out how to enjoy those experiences on your own.”

Whether she’s delivering the stripped-back acoustic balladry of “The Best Of You” or the glittering soul-funk grandeur of “Don’t Remind Me” (a lush and luminous track featuring nine-time Grammywinning superstar Anderson .Paak), Mark imbues every song on Pretty Idea with her immense sensitivity and limitless vision. As a little girl, she first tapped into her artistic side by composing poems, then moved onto songwriting at age 12 after teaching herself to play guitar on a nylon-string acoustic bought by her mother at a Berlin flea market. Over the coming years, Mark honed her oneof-a-kind musical voice by drawing from a vast well of influences, including soul legends like Stevie Wonder, R&B chanteuse Sade, Brazilian bossa nova, and the Indian classical music she discovered while living in a Buddhist monastery with her mother. Although songwriting always served as an essential outlet for Mark, her music took on a greater emotional urgency with the making of 3:33am—a 2017 project created in the aftermath of her mother’s death. “At the time I wasn’t thinking about music in any kind of professional way; I was just writing as a form of relief and release,” she says. “After a while I realized that each song I’d written represented a stage of grief, and the whole record came together from there.”

Following the breakout success of 3:33am, Mark gained further acclaim with her 2018 sophomore

EP Conexão, earned a Grammy nomination for her contribution to Chromeo’s chart-topping LP

Head over Heels, and captivated audiences at major festivals like Coachella, Outside Lands, and Pitchfork. Now based in Southern California—where she lives within walking distance of her closest collaborators in a remote area she refers to as “my little artist oasis”—Mark thrives on immersing herself in the singular thrill of creative exploration. “There’s so many different styles of music I want to experiment with—sometimes I worry I’ll never get to make everything I want to make in one lifetime,” she says. “With this album I fulfilled the dream of creating a type of sound I’d always loved, but I’m not really interested in staying with that sound forever. As an artist I’m ever-changing and ever-growing, and I know my roots will keep on spreading in all different directions.”